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Voices and influences

Jerome

The scholar who went to the Hebrew itself and gave the West a Bible it read for a thousand years.

Summary

This site quotes Jerome 2,794 times across 57 books, and lists 0 works.

  • Lived died 420.
  • Quoted here most in Matthew: 558 of 2,794.
Jerome. Painted by Caravaggio. The file is marked public domain. This site's record does not give the artist's death year, which is what settles the painting's own rights. The file record

Jerome

Lived
died 420
Tradition
Patristic

5 of 2,794 quotations

Own words

Quoted in full, because Jerome died in 420 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.

(Chapter 49, verse 3) Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the first of my sons, tough in bearing and tough in insolence and injury, like water that does not boil.

Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420

The rest of the quotation

You went up on your father's bed, then you defiled it when you went up. In Hebrew it is written: Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength, and the first in power among my sons. Greater in carrying, and greater in strength. You are poured out like water, do not exceed. For you have ascended the bed of your father and defiled the couch in his ascent.

Genesis 49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. BSB

But we your people and the sheep of your pasture. When he says "sheep," he signifies innocence. Sheep have nothing but a shepherd. We will give you thanks forever. We will confess: either we do penance, or, what is better, we glorify.

Homily 12, on Psalm 78, 420

The rest of the quotation

From generation to generation; among the first people, and among the second people. Although according to the historical sense it is said otherwise in Ezekiel, nevertheless according to the spiritual understanding we say this, since these two peoples — that is, the two rods — are joined together in Ezekiel, and become one kingdom.

Psalms 79:13 Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will thank You forever; from generation to generation we will declare Your praise. BSB

I have become like the pelican of the wilderness. There are said to be two kinds of these birds.

Homily 28, on Psalm 101, 420

The rest of the quotation

One lives in the waters, and its food is fish; and one lives in the wilderness, and its food is venomous creatures, that is, serpents and crocodiles and lizards. Now these birds are called in Latin 'onocrotali.' To that one therefore have I become like, which lives in the wilderness, which eats venomous creatures: that is, my food was to me as it were poison. I have become like the night-raven in its dwelling-place.

Psalms 102:6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. BSB

"Be exalted above the heavens, O God." God is not exalted except above the heavens, he is not exalted above the earth. When we are earthly, we do not exalt God; but if from earthly we have been made heavenly, then we exalt God.

Homily 34, on Psalm 107, 420

The rest of the quotation

And our Lord, when he was on earth, did not exalt us. Someone may say: You speak rashly, since he himself says in the Gospel: "When I have been lifted up, I will draw all things to myself."

Psalms 108:5–6 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; may Your glory cover all the earth. Respond and save us with Your right hand, that Your beloved may be delivered. BSB

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. Just now we heard the holy presbyter preaching that, because of its transgression of the law, the Jewish people has been forsaken; and how is it that now it is said, Praise the Lord, O…

Homily 57, on Psalm 147, 420

The rest of the quotation

Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion? Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, "vision of peace." Praise your God, O Zion. Zion is interpreted "watchtower." You see, then, what he says: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Wherever there is a vision of peace, wherever there is contemplation of God, there let there be praise of God.

Psalms 147:12 Exalt the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion! BSB

Influence, on the record

The life, in order

The life told as one accountfrom this site's record

Eusebius Hieronymus was born about 347 at Stridon, a town on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia that no longer exists. His parents were Christians with money. They sent him to Rome, where he studied grammar and rhetoric under the great teacher Donatus, collected pagan authors, and was baptized in his late teens. He traveled east, and about 375 went into the desert of Chalcis, southeast of Antioch, to live as a hermit. He lasted a few years. He hated the heat, quarreled with the monks over the Trinity, and — by his own account — hired a converted Jew to teach him Hebrew, largely to keep his mind off Rome. That decision changed the history of the Bible in the West. Ordained at Antioch, he went on to Constantinople, where he heard Gregory of Nazianzus, and then in 382 to Rome, where Pope Damasus made him a secretary and set him to revising the Latin Gospels against the Greek. In Rome he also became teacher to a circle of wealthy Christian women — Marcella, Paula, and Paula's daughter Eustochium — who studied Scripture and Hebrew with him. His scorn for the worldly Roman clergy was returned with interest, and after Damasus died in 384 he left the city for good. In 386 he settled at Bethlehem, where Paula founded monasteries for men and women and paid for his books. He stayed thirty-four years, working in a cave beside the traditional site of the Nativity. There he did the thing he is known for. Instead of correcting the old Latin against the Greek Septuagint, he translated the Old Testament out of the Hebrew — going to Jewish teachers for help, arguing that the Hebraica veritas, the Hebrew truth, was the standard. Augustine wrote to warn him that congregations would riot over changed familiar words, and in North Africa one did. Jerome kept going. He also wrote commentaries on most of the prophets, on Matthew and several letters of Paul, a catalogue of Christian writers, letters that were copied and read as literature, and translations of Origen and Eusebius. He was a savage controversialist. He broke publicly with his oldest friend Rufinus over Origen, attacked Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Pelagius in print, and lost few opportunities to wound. In 410 refugees from the sack of Rome arrived at his door and he wrote that the light of the world had gone out. Paula died in 404, Eustochium in 419. Jerome died at Bethlehem in 420. His translation, gathered later with other Latin books into what came to be called the Vulgate, was the Bible of Western Europe until the Reformation and remained the Roman Catholic standard far beyond it. Sources: Jerome, Letters and De viris illustribus; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church; the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series, second series volume 6; the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.

2,794 quotations across 57 books

Where this voice is quoted

Jeremiah 3:17Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

At that time Jerusalem will be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD.

(Verse 17) In that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather unto it in the name of the Lord, in Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the stubbornness of their wicked heart.

Jeremiah 3:19Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’

(Verse 19) But I said: How shall I put you among the children, and give you a desirable land, an excellent heritage of the armies of the nations? And I said, you shall call me father, and you shall not cease to follow me.

Jeremiah 3:20Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

(Verse 20) But as a woman may despise her lover, so the house of Israel has despised Me, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 3:21–22Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.

(Verses 21, 22.) A voice was heard in the streets (or on the lips), the weeping and wailing of the children of Israel, for they have done wickedness, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Jeremiah 3:25Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to…

(Verse 25) Let us sleep in our confusion, and let our disgrace cover us: for we have sinned against our God, both we and our fathers, from our youth until this day, and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.

Jeremiah 4:1Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,

(Chapter IV, Verse 1) If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to me. The Septuagint translates it as: If Israel turns back, says the Lord, it will return to me.

Jeremiah 4:2Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they…

(Verse 2.) And you shall swear, 'As the Lord lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless him, and they themselves shall praise him.' And how does the Gospel forbid us to swear? But here (Matt.

Jeremiah 4:4SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:70.1-4 (420)

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem.

What we translate as "be circumcised to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your hearts," Symmacus renders as "be purified to the Lord and remove the malice from your hearts," understanding circumcision as purification and the foreskin as vice.

Jeremiah 4:5–6Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’

(Verse 5, 6.) Announce in Judah, and make it heard in Jerusalem, speak: blow the trumpet in the land, cry aloud, and say: Gather together, and let us enter the fortified cities.

Jeremiah 4:7SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:72.1-3 (420)

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land.

This is the true Nebuchadnezzar, as we have said before, about whom Peter also said, "Our adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion."

Jeremiah 4:14Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

(Verse 14.) Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long shall evil thoughts dwell in you?

Jeremiah 4:15Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.

(Verse 15) The voice of the messenger from Dan, announcing the idol (or pain) from Mount Ephraim. Near the location of the land of Judah, the divine word now speaks.

Jeremiah 4:19–20Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent.

(Verse 19, 20.) My belly, my belly is in pain: the feelings of my heart are troubled within me. I will not be silent because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.

Jeremiah 4:21Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the horn?

(Verse 21.) How long will I see those fleeing (Vulgate: the one fleeing), hear the sound of the horn? Whether those fleeing from the king of Babylon, or those fleeing from me and departing from my service.

Jeremiah 4:27–28Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.

(Vers. 27, 28.) For thus says the Lord: The whole earth shall be desolate, but I will not make a complete end. The earth shall mourn and the heavens above shall be sorrowful, because I have spoken ((or thought)).

Jeremiah 4:29Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.

(Verse 29.) At the sound of the horseman, and of him who sends forth the arrow (or bends the bow), every city (or region) flees. They have entered the heights and climbed the rocks.

Jeremiah 4:30Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint?

(Verse 30.) But what will you do, O devastated one? The word 'devastated' in Hebrew is 'Sadud', which only Aquila has translated, others have translated it as 'miserable and wretched', by their own fault, for they have offended a merciful God.

Jeremiah 5:1SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:93.1-2 (420)

“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares.

After the address of the Lord in which he commanded, "go throughout Jerusalem," and so on, the prophet addresses the Lord in return: "Lord, your eyes look for faith," which is ʾemûnā in Hebrew, referring not to the works of the Jews, in which they…

Jeremiah 5:4–5Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

(Vers. 4, 5.) But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish (or they were unable) and ignorant of the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.

Jeremiah 5:9Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

(Vers. 9) Will I not visit them for these things, says the Lord? Will my soul not avenge itself on such a nation? When you do these things, he says, are you not worthy of punishment?

Jeremiah 5:25Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.

(Verse 25) Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

Jeremiah 5:26Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

(Verse 26.) Because there were found among my people wicked ones plotting like bird catchers, setting snares and traps to capture men; like a net full of birds, so is their house full of deceit.

Jeremiah 5:27–29Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

(Verse 27 and following) Therefore they have been magnified and enriched: they have become fat and grown thick, and have passed over my words wickedly: they have not judged the cause, the cause of the orphan, so they did not direct the judgment of the…

Jeremiah 6:1Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

“Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great…

(Chapter 6, Verse 1) Take courage, sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem; and in Thecua sound the trumpet; and on Bethacherem raise a sign (or banner), for evil has been seen (or appeared) from the North and great destruction.

Jeremiah 6:4–5Commentary on Jeremiah (420)

‘Prepare for battle against her; rise up, let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; the evening shadows grow long.

(Verse 4, 5.) Woe to us, because the day has declined, because the shadows in the evening have become longer (or have failed). Arise and let us ascend in the night, and let us scatter its houses (or its foundations).